The United States could have 51 states in the near future. Now that Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the White House, the advocates of making Washington D.C the 51st state took the opportunity.

House Democrats passed the Washington, D.C. Admission Act by a vote of 216 to 208. But the D.C. statehood still faces a lot of Obstacles, not only in the divided Senate but also the public opinion. In a 2019 Gallup poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans opposed D.C. statehood. In 2020 statehood advocates launched a campaign to introduce the nation to everyday residents of their country’s capital. They were arguing that maybe the nation doesn’t know enough about the people who live in the District to have an informed position about making it a state. After this many Democrats have started to see this as a basic civil rights issue.

Washington D.C has most if not all of the main requirements for being its own state, for example DC has 712,000 residents, more than Vermont and Wyoming and is also comparable with other states including Delaware, Alaska, and several others. Democrats say making DC the 51st state is important to ensure equal representation in Congress. But Republicans argue the statehood question is an effort by Democrats to gain more votes in the Senate to push more progressive policies. Washington DC has a large African American population, and its constituents tend to vote for Democrats.

The bill would reduce the size of the federal district and admit the newly named Washington, Douglass Commonwealth as the 51st state. It also would give DC’s residents a voting representative in the House and two US senators. Advocates say the fight for statehood is about racial justice, given that the majority of DC’s residents are people of color. We will get a clear decision in the near future.